The Origins of the First United Front in China: The Role of Sneevliet (Alias Maring) (review)

544 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1995 approach trade with China for the first time and need a general, broad introduction to the topic. Oded Shenkar Tel-Aviv University and University of Hawai'i KG Tony Saich. The Origins ofthe First United Front in China: The Role of Sneevliet (Alias Maring). 2 volumes. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991. xxvii, 941 pp. Hardcover $171.50. Tony Saich describes this work as "a reconstruction of the time spent by H. Sneevliet (Maring) in China as the official representative of the Comintern (1921-23)" (p. xvii), but it is much more than that. The combination ofinsightful narrative and documentation (which is printed in both the original language and English) in these two volumes constitutes a necessary addition to the library of anyone with an interest in this period in Chinese history. Those of us who, in the 1970s, were engaged in research on China of the 1920s realized that, while several significant works had already been produced, this time frame was very imperfectly researched and analyzed. In part this was due to the complexity ofthe era, with nationalists, communists, and warlords all contributing to the chaos that was China. It was also due to a combination oflack ofaccess to needed research materials and to a desire by both the KMT and the CCP to interpret the period according to their own political views. One encouraging aspect of studying 1920s China was that by the 1970s Soviet interest in China of this era had resulted in a considerable number of monographs , both book-length and shorter, as well as biographies and collected works on the years 1923-1927. Among those made available in English were V. V. Vishnyakova-Akimova's Two Years in Revolutionary China 1925-27(1971) and Marc Kasanin's China in the Twenties (1973). Utilizing these sources and others, Lydia Holubnychy (1979) and Dan Jacobs (1981) contributed scholarly works on the adviser who was given the task of conducting Comintern policy in China, Michael Borodin. „,„„,-, TT . From these sources one could obtain an absorbing look at a handful of for-© 1995 by University° ofHawai'i Presse^n advisers who had traveled thousands ofmiles in order to work, often under very unfavorable conditions, in the service ofinternational communism. These individuals, missionaries in many ways, were young and enthusiastic. They were Reviews 545 true believers in the fight to liberate the oppressed ofthe world. Such portraits served to whet the researcher's palate in the 1970s. Another adviser, a Dutch revolutionary Marxist named H.J.F.M. Sneevliet, also played a significant role, "but not the only role, nor necessarily the most important role" as Saich stresses, during the formative years ofthe Chinese Communist Party. Sneevliet (alias Maring, Marten, Marling, Mareng, Malin, Slevelet, Sun-t'o, Gni Kong-ching, Dr. Simon, Mr. Philip, Brouwer, Andresen, Joh van Son, etc.) also received attention in the 1970s. Harold Isaacs published "Notes on a Conversation with H. Sneevliet" in The China Quarterly (no. 45), and Dov Bing authored another article for CQ, "Sneevliet and the Early Years of the CCP" (no. 48). The latter piece generated considerable discussion in subsequent issues ofthe same journal. The questions raised in these commentaries and replies were whether there was a "First Hangchow Plenum" in April 1922, whether Sneevliet "persuaded his Chinese comrades ofthe wisdom ofjoining forces with the KMT," and whether Sneevliet founded the first Labor Secretariat. Saich, utilizing both the recently available (1985) holdings ofthe Sneevliet Archive at the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis in Amsterdam and the ArchiefMinisterie van Kolonien (Archive of the Ministry of the Colonies, The Hague), provides the answers. First, concerning the Hangchow Plenum, Saich notes that while Sneevliet did indeed hold a number ofmeetings with CCP leaders and members of the KMT at that time, no formal plenum as such took place in April. The only Hangchow Plenum held in 1922 was convened at the end ofAugust. Saich also observes that in the 1980s a number ofPRC scholars joined the debate challenging the assertion that such a plenum had been held in April. The answer to the second question—whether Sneevliet "persuaded his Chinese comrades ofthe wisdom ofjoining forces with...